'Captain America: The Winter Soldier' Sets April Box Office Record

The second of the Captain America movies, “The Winter Soldier,” set an April box-office record with an estimated $96.2 million opening weekend, breaking “Fast Five”’s $86.2 million open in April 2011, but in a way it was a disappointment. It got great reviews (89% on Rotten Tomatoes), good audience feedback (95% on same), and its Thursday midnight haul of $9-$10 million indicated it might do $110-$120. But $96.2 million will have to do.

Again, that’s the best April opener, the third-best spring opener, and the 30th best all-time, but the key will be the comeback. How will it do in its second weekend? Does it have legs?

“Noah” doesn’t. It fell off 61.1% this weekend for $17 million and second place. “Divergent” neither. In its third weekend, it fell off by 49% to $13 million and a $114 million total. The would-be “next ‘Hunger Games’” probably won’t gross overall what “Hunger Games” grossed its opening weekend. Arnold Schwarzenegger, in particular, no longer has legs. His “Sabotage” opened abysmally at $5.2 million but still fell off 63.8% in its second weekend. Its total thus far? $8.7 million. Over and out.

What has legs? “God’s Not Dead,” a supposedly awful movie (20% RT score) about a plucky Christian freshman who engages his smug, atheist college professor (former “Hercules” Kevin Sorbo) in a debate about the existence of God. It fell off by only 12% to finish fourth with $7.7 million and a total gross of $32 million. So maybe this is the answer for Arnold. Maybe he needs to find religion. Or attack atheistic Hollywood. Or both.

A better movie that has legs is “The Grand Budapest Hotel,” which finished fifth with $6.3 million for a total gross of $33 million. Unadjusted, that’s Wes Anderson’s third-biggest box office hit—after “Royal Tenenbaums” ($52 million in 2001) and “Moonrise Kingdom” ($45.5 million in 2012).